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paw·paw also pa·paw

(pôpô)

1. Any of various deciduous trees and shrubs of the genus Asimina of the eastern and southeast United States, especially A. triloba, having maroon flowers with three sepals and six petals and fleshy, yellowish-green, edible fruit.

2. The fruit of any of these plants.

3. See papaya.

[Originally a variant of PAPAYA.]

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pawpaw

Asimina triloba

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

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Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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